Jack London’s savage calculations To set the fire This famous short story has been a staple on high school and college reading lists for over a century.
In just 7,000 words written in 1908, London describes the fatal misjudgment of the frozen weather of gold miners to demonstrate the consequences of human self-delusions and subtle non-nuisance in the face of what London biographer James L. Haley labeled nature’s “creepy cosmic powers.”
The sentence is short, as vivid explanations as the Yukon’s frigid air, and still relevant insights into human behavioral punishment.
Below is what London is first describing our fateful, and unnamed travelers when it breaks off the Main Yukon Trail in minus 50 degrees weather.
“The problem with him is that he had no imagination. He was quick and vigilant about things in life, but it wasn’t important only in things.”
This lack of awareness, respect for uncontextual facts, gives travelers a false sense of confidence and control.
“It didn’t lead us to meditate on the frailty of less than zero 50 degrees… temperature creatures and, generally, human frailty.
Source: Stories by Jeff Miller on Medium – jeffmiller-50455.medium.com
